Statrix Redux

Pretty much the only saddle I’ll ride on these days is a Brooks B-17. The shape is perfect for me and, contrary to the experience of some, I’ve never had any trouble breaking them in – probably because I’m..eh…jumbo.
Because I’ve got a new bike arriving in a month or so, it seemed fitting to start thinking about saddles. It was pretty much a given that I’d go with another Brooks and most likely a B-17. I’ve thought about the springed version, but have always hesitated.
In truth I probably a B-17 laying around somewhere. I know I’ve got a B-68 I don’t care for, but it’s a new bike so it deserves a new saddle, yes?
In the end I’ve decided to give the Brooks Select line a try. Yes, they are a bit more expensive (figure $180 vs $100 for the regular model), but if they are a bit stiffer I’m good.
In the end I ordered this…

The saddle will arrive before the bike…wonder if I’ll break it in on my Quickbeam…hmmmm….

Ouch!
I’ve been suffering from what I believe to a case of hip bursitis for a couple of months. The description of the symptoms in this article from WebMD are pretty much dead on.
Sigh.
Now I’ve got to say that cycling hasn’t been a problem in terms of pain. I rode down the coast of Oregon, or at least much of it – with plenty of climbing, without any pain on the bicycle. It’s only off the bicycle that I hurt.
Still I figure all my biking, while not increasing the damage, isn’t helping me heal. So I’ve decided to lay off for a bit.
I’ve actually already done that since I returned, cycling only on Bike to Work Day.
I wish I could say I’m enjoying my break, but in truth I’m not. However my hip has improved over the last 10 days so I suspect it’s good advice.
I see my doctor in a week or two for a regular checkup and will bring it up, but I suspect he’ll say what he usually does about my various aches and pains.

If you rest and let it heal you should be good to go in about two to four weeks. If you want, we can schedule you with a specialist and with treatment you should be good to go in fourteen to twenty-eight days. Your choice.

I should note I have a doctor I trust and if he seriously thought I needed something he wouldn’t hesitate to let me know.
Enjoy this picture of the hip area…

Your thigh bone connected to your hip bone,
Your hip bone connected to your back bone,
Your back bone connected to your shoulder bone,

I remembered just in time that it’s Bike to Work day again. In the past I’ve made something out of it at work through my participation in our “green team.” This year, with my Oregon trip and my mom’s passing I just didn’t have a chance to think about it at all.
And, I’ll have to admit, after biking the Oregon coast and bits and pieces of Portland and the Bay Area I was okay with a wee bit of time off my bike. I’ve had a hip injury for the past couple of months and, while it doesn’t really hurt when I ride, I’ve tried to rest it when I can.
Still today I hopped on my bike and made it work. Felt fine. Glad I did it. Why wasn’t I riding all week? Don’t know.
Anyway, here’s what’s left of the Honolulu Bike to Work schedule for the week…

May 18 | Bike 2 Work
Thomas Square 6-8am, 4-6pm The Bike Shop snacks & bike adjustments
May 19 | Ride of Silence
State Capitol at 4 p.m
May 20 | Bike to the Zoo
Honolulu Zoo 9am-2pm

Did I mention I bought a new bike? Nope?
While I was in the Bay Area I had to visit Rivendell Bicycle Works, where I finally got to meet Grant Petersen in person, and…yep…purchased a Hunqapillar. It won’t be here till July so I’m not going to write too much about it now, but I’m certainly looking forward to a regular bike that isn’t a single-speed. I’m not giving up my single-speeds mind you, but there are times when I like being able to shift.
It’s going to look more or less like this…

But that isn’t really the point of this note. Grant did an NPR interview for Bike to Work day which you can find through this link.

It’s been a while since my last post…I’ve been busy. My Oregon/San Francisco trip has come to an end. Overall it was a successful trip, but a bittersweet one. My mother, who’d been ill, passed on while I was away. I’d spent a lot of time with her before I left and she encouraged me to go so I don’t feel bad about going. I do feel bad about losing her, but in truth she had a wonderful life, loved much, was loved, and left the world richer than she found it. She’ll be missed.
As for the trip, Erich and I managed to hit a bad week of Oregon weather. The week before we arrived the weather was nice, the week following was the same. Our week looked a lot like this, in fact, exactly like this:

Of course the entire nine days wasn’t that wet, though I think we hit some rain pretty much every day. Indeed there were two days that it rained so hard we couldn’t ride safely at all. Those days we decided to take a local bus to the next town. Both times visibility on the road was bad enough that, while we were disappointed in missing the ride, we applauded ourselves for making the right choice.
There’ll be a lot more for me to say about the trip, but you can read more about it on ‘crazyguyonabike’ here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/oregonpie2012
I’ve got to finish up the journal, but most of the ride is documented, if not illustrated.
Here’s the final shot of the ride (though not of the vacation)…

Aloha!

Several months ago I wrote about my acquisition of a set of Ergon PC2 pedals. In that post I noted that:

The biggest complaint I have has to do their construction. Because they have been designed to sit as close to the crank as possible they require the use of an Allen wrench to attach. Unfortunately it seems that the material isn’t metal and is some sort of plastic. I managed to come close to stripping one of the pedals. Indeed I may have done that and if so I’m going to have some real trouble when I try to take another trip. That’s not happening for a bit and I’ve had other things on my mind so I’ve left well enough alone, but I’m going to have to look into it in the next month or two. It’s always something.

Jeff from Ergon commented on that post noting that:

The pedals install using a 8mm Allen key on the pedal axle not the plastic cap on the outside of the pedal.
See page 23:
http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/en/files/files/view/1988/ERG_PC2_Manual_110113_Web.pdf

I still didn’t get it. Boy I can be dumb.
Jeff is, of course, completely right.
I’d had no reason to disassemble my NWT till today. I’m preparing for an upcoming Oregon coast ride so naturally I needed to get my pedals off.
I finally got it. You work from the other side of the pedal. Instead of using a 15mm wrench on the outside of the crank, you use an 8mm hex from the inside of the crank.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
I retract all earlier stupidity, though I’ll have to own to the fact that I said it. Sigh.
In any case, I love the pedals. I’ve been riding them for 6 months now and they are great. I slip a lot less than I did on the MKS pedals I was using before and the comfort level is super. I’m looking forward to 400 miles of comfort as I pedal south along the coast.
Thanks Jeff. Thanks Ergon. Now if only they had them in colors – like pumpkin orange (and English racing green).
Mea culpa.

Aloha!

Yes, it’s been a month since I’ve updated anything here at Statrix. It’s been both good news and bad. The bad news is that there have been significant health issues involving more than one member of my family, though I’ve been fine. That’s really taken me out of my routine and involved multiple inter-island trips.
The good news is that everyone seems to be recovering. Whew.
As for me, I’ve done no photography lately, have had to miss most of the Rainbow baseball season since I last mentioned it, and have done almost no bicycling save for the odd bit of commuting. Believe me when I say I’d trade it all for everyone’s health. I’m not complaining, just noting.
Now for the complaining…
My Oregon coast trip is still on and starts pretty darn quickly. Sadly I’m completely out of shape. It’s going to be…um…painful. We don’t have any super-hard or long days so I’m not too concerned. Last time I checked, which was recently my resting heart rate was still excellent for a someone my age and weight. I still bike daily when I’m on the island and if I haven’t been putting in the miles neither have I completely forgotten how to ride a bike.
In any case I’m really looking forward to the trip, even the suffering. There’s been a lot of stress in my life lately and I’m looking forward to burning it all off.
I plan on documenting things here a bit better now that my trip is nigh. I’m also planning on making a ton of images (how much do pixels weight anyway?) on my trip.
So think of this post as an aspiration, if not a promise.
Aloha!

Today I saw something I’d never seen at a college level baseball game before. With one out in the second inning and a lead of 2-0, CMU hit into a questionable 4-3 ground out. I haven’t seen a replay so I can’t say for sure the call was good, but it was the call.
Steve Jacksa, the CMU coach, went over to first and argued the call with the umpire who’d made the call. I’ve got no problem with that. It’s part of baseball. A good argument can be fun. More power to you coach.
But here’s the rub. After failing to persuade the umpire of his case, and when was the last time you saw a coach win one of these, Coach Jacksa stalked a back across the field from 1st to 3rd going right over the pitcher’s mound. And he didn’t just walk across it accidentally. He clearly knew what he was doing and did it, as far as I can tell, to show his contempt for the umpires and for our team.
Look, I get being mad at an umpire. I get mad at them all the time. But it was an incredible show of bad sportsmanship to stalk across the mound and show up our pitcher like that. There isn’t any rule against it. But after A-Rod did it to Braden back in 2010 and ignited a controversy, there’s no way to interpret it as just a way to cross the field anymore.
Coach, your team is welcome back here anytime. I’d love to see them. They are a good baseball team. Your fans are welcome back anytime, they are a great group. Your assistant coaches are welcome back; I watched one toss a ball to group of keiki after the game – good show.
But you sir, you are not welcome back, at least not until you learn to handle your unhappiness. If you must direct it somewhere go after the umpires, but don’t disrespect our team, our fans, or our ball park. That was ugliest display I have ever seen from a college level baseball coach. You knew what you were doing and you knew what the reaction would be. Grow up coach or take your ball and go home. Please.
Here he is folks, my new role model, #22…Steve Jacksa…

To his credit he did pick up a bit of trash that probably wouldn’t have made it onto the playing surface and seemed fine doing it. And, looking at his record and the number of players signed or drafted during his tenure he is a good coach.
I’m just sorry that during his 300th win, and he did win today, he managed to turn something that should have been a fun afternoon in the sun into a sorry spectacle of bad sportsmanship.

500 wins?! Sure, I believe you. No losses. Yeah, sure.

I do promise I actually won 500 games.
CTRL-ALT-DEL

Some thoughts on riding in the rain…
I got to try the cape tonight. We’ve been having fairly heavy rain the last few days (do flash flood warnings count as heavy rain?).
Late this afternoon I had to ride downtown to teach a class. I used my knock-about bike and the rain cape. There were no problems, the rain was light and frankly the cape was more or less overkill. Indeed the rain stopped most of the way. Still I was big yellow banana and quite visible in the gloaming.
After class, however, was when I really got to try the cape. It’s about a 30 minute ride home (it’s a wee bit faster when the roads aren’t soaked and it’s daylight). The rain was coming down hard. Not hard enough to really impair visibility, a rain white-out if you will – we get ’em here all the time, but a decent rain.
I donned my cape and realized my blinkies were going to be visible as they are mounted on the small saddle back below my saddle. I ended up clipping them to the back of my neckline and my helmet. That worked but I’m going to have to do something else in the future. See below.
The cape worked great. Once I’d cinched it up around the neck I did get more than a drop or two sneaking in that way. Ventilation was good; much better than a jacket. I did build up a bit of condensation and perspiration, but in the humidity that would have happened without the cape and jacket would have been terrible.
I had no trouble maneuvering at any time. Keep in mind though that this is really designed for a fairly upright position. I could ride with it on any of my bikes, but if your handlebars are below your saddle and you disdain anything but riding on the drops this isn’t your rain cape.
The biggest issue I had was with my lower legs and feet. I was wearing long pants with one leg rolled up over the chain. I also had on regular New Balance walking shoes. The pant leg that was down and both my shoes got soaked – even with fenders there was just too much rain and too many massive puddles (some a good 4 inches deep and running).
In the future there won’t be much I can when I’m headed to work and such, but wearing the MUSA knickers and sandals without socks will completely solve the leg problem. My knees were dry from the cape, so it’s really only my lower calves and feet that I need to watch out for. Knickers and sandals, good to go.
As for the blinkies, I’ve got a solution for that too. Rivendell thoughtfully included a big strip of reflective tape to stick on the back of the cape. I haven’t done that yet and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m going to put a couple small holes, and inch or so apart, in the tape. Next I’ll tread a bit good strong nylon webbing material through the holes to form a small loop with enough lead to be held below the tape. Once I stick it on, I should have a little fabric loop on my back on which I can put my blinkie. Since they are light it shouldn’t stress the tape out much. And even if there are problems in the future, it’ll hold for a good long time. If it ever does come off, more tape is in order. The fabric of the cape won’t ever be penetrated so I’ve got no leak issues. Problem solved. Or rather, solved once I actually do it. 🙂
The only other issue I have is my head. I generally wear a helmet, though I’m not a helmet fanatic. I wear them mostly because I can stick bright reflective tape on it and because on organized rides you have to wear ’em. My head got soaked. Yes, I know about shower caps and such, didn’t have one tonight.
I do, however, have the Grunden’s hat as well. The problem it that it doesn’t seem like it can be worn successfully under a helmet. I was in a hurry so, to be honest, I didn’t try. I just left it at home and stuck with the helmet. I might have been happier the other way, but slippery conditions can lead to falls and a figured I was better off with the helmet.
Still I’m going to try to work something out with the rain cap. I may try it tomorrow on my way to work if the rain cooperates…that is, it’s still raining.

I just remembered one of things I learned about Iowa last year prior to RAGBRAI 2011…Iowa has Bald Eagles. Actually that’s not really it…Iowa has Bald Eagle media stars: The Decorah Eagles.
Of course as soon as I remember I surfed over to their website at http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles to see what was up. Sure enough they’ve been busy again and are starting a new brood (is that what to call it?).
They’ve laid three eggs this year (as of 2/24) and currently are keeping them warm in the almost (at this moment) freezing weather. Right now it’s 32.8F in Decorah, probably colder up in a tree.
I guess I’ll be following along this year again – watching the eaglets fledge last year was fascinating. I may not mention it much here again, but it’s certainly something worth watching.


Live video for mobile from Ustream
Aloha!